


Aftermath

by Traxits



Series: Silk for Bravery, Gold for Honor [4]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-07
Updated: 2016-03-07
Packaged: 2018-05-25 08:26:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6187378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Traxits/pseuds/Traxits
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Katara thinks on seeing Sokka at the Fire Temple.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Aftermath

**Author's Note:**

> Set immediately after the Solstice, so right after chapter 7 of [Silk](http://archiveofourown.org/works/718546).
> 
> Prompt 3: Holding.

Katara didn't speak for the first few hours after they escaped the Fire Temple. It was okay, because Aang kept talking, chattering about Avatar Roku and knowing what he needed to do, having a plan, or at least, the start of one. Katara could barely hear him though. He spoke from a hundred miles away, looking back at Suki, talking about the details. All Katara could do was look out over Appa's side. She watched the waves crest, felt the pull of the ocean. It was more soothing than anything else had been so far.

She kept picturing Sokka standing there, soot-covered and his clothes ripped, no weapon that she could see. His hair had grown long during his captivity, loose around his face. Much longer than she ever would have thought, and she used to help him trim the back, shave the narrow lines that he inevitably missed. How many times had she purposely 'accidentally' let one of those little lines grow long, so that he'd have about seven or eight hairs flopping around outside of his tail every time he turned his head?

There had been no trace of those lines in his hair. No trace of the warpaint that he always used when the Fire Nation approached. No immediate sign of her brother at all. It had been a sister standing there, a sister she knew she didn't have, and what game was Zuko playing with him that he'd kept him dressed in girl clothes? Had he not noticed, not recognized—?

"Katara."

Katara's head lifted slowly, looking away from the water. She had to blink to make her eyes focus on Suki. Aang. They were both looking at her expectantly, and she... what could she even say to them? Her lips parted, and no, that was a mistake, because when the words escaped her, they choked her. They brought tears to her eyes, and she wasn't a good enough waterbender to stop those.

"I didn't recognize him," she managed, and Suki made a low noise as she wrapped her arms around Katara. Katara pressed in close, her face against Suki's throat, her arms tight around Suki's waist. "I didn't. I didn't know who he was until Zuko..."

They were both quiet, and Suki's hand rubbed Katara's back in a steady rhythm. It was nothing like being back home, nothing like the way Sokka would have done it. It was too steady, too even. There was no water in that movement, and how did Suki not dry out when she was full of nothing but earth?

"It's okay," Suki whispered, and that made Katara shake harder as she tried to protest. It wasn't okay. It wasn't. It couldn't be. "Katara. Katara, listen to me." Suki pushed her back enough to look at her, eyes dark and narrow as she held Katara's gaze. "It doesn't matter. Whatever's happened, it doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is that he's alive. He's clever, and he's alive."

Katara nodded very slowly. Suki would know. Suki had lived much closer to the Fire Nation than Katara had, and while she hadn't ever dealt with the Southern Raiders, Suki had surely lost people of her own to the Fire Nation. Everyone had. Katara's eyes slid past Suki's shoulder to meet Aang's, and Katara reached out to take his hand. He managed a very small smile as he looked up at her.

"We'll get him back," he promised, and there was something odd about the promise, about his voice when he made it. He wasn't glowing though, so there was that, and Katara nodded slowly. They would get him back. And Sokka would be home again.


End file.
